


Bunny Business in Metropolis

by SheisaCShelz



Category: Zootopia (2016)
Genre: F/M, Friendship, Lots of dumb bunnies, Sorry it's not Judy/Nick
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-23
Updated: 2016-03-23
Packaged: 2018-05-28 15:18:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,848
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6334090
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SheisaCShelz/pseuds/SheisaCShelz
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When addition is harder than multiplication.</p>
<p>Or in less obscure words, Judy's first boyfriend was an idiot.  Her second boyfriend was a jerk.  Her third was somewhere between an idiot and a jerk.  Her fourth was an utter coward.  It's hard for our heroine to find love and keep it.  But it's often when you've given up that you shine the brightest.</p>
<p>In other news, Nick is an amazing friend.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Bunny Business in Metropolis

Judy’s first boyfriend was, unfortunately, the epitome of “country bumpkin” and the reason bunnies were often stereotyped as dumb. Judy will forever maintain that she was inexperienced and nostalgic and homesick, and Nick would just prefer to forget the whole thing.

\--

Bunnytown is not welcoming to foxes. Go figure. But, since Nick kind of played a major role in saving a litter from imminent death (with Judy, but he was the one holding onto the squalling, squirming octuplet so that they didn’t fall off the 52-story skyscraper) and since Judy was kind of his best friend and a rabbit, he figured he would get at least grudging acceptance and no one would act like he was about to pounce on their family and gobble up their children.

So when Chief Bozo called him and his partner in for an emergency meeting/update on their case, Nick naturally said, “Her phone must be dead, I’ll go get her,” and strolled into town, ducking a little to get under the archway.

One minute and thirty seconds later, he got sprayed in the face.

Fox deterrent. That must have been it because his nose was on fire and buried in a glacier at the same time. Every breath stung, and the acid burned in his eyes and, oh God, was that pathetic mewling him??

Judy, for her part, was infuriated. Her partner/best friend was writhing on the floor and mewling in pain like a tortured puppy, and all her date could say was,

“He’s a fox!”

Judy stamped her foot. “Yes, he’s a fox, and he’s my partner on the force! Nick is my best friend and you just hurt him!”

Her date stares with his mouth hanging wide open as though she has just announced that the sky is green and it will rain toads tomorrow. “But he’s a fox!”

“Someone call an ambulance!” Judy snaps at the crowd. She does not have time for this rabbit right now, and doesn’t want to make time ever again. “And don’t bother calling or texting me ever again,” she adds to the rabbit with the fox deterrent still in his hand, the nozzle under one finger.

She kneels next to Nick, nose twitching at the smell although, rabbit, she knows that she has no idea what it’s like, and murmurs as soothingly as she can as her partner paws at his eyes and twists and whimpers.

One decent bunny hangs up a phone.

\--

Judy’s second boyfriend was everything that her first boyfriend was not. He had a very cosmopolitan air about him that Nick constantly mocked (which got him smacked around by Judy – a lot). He was a businessman with a degree in political science, a member of the board of education, and a descendant of one of the first founders of Zootopia, Vincent Goh Hillsan. Oh, and he was a complete and utter jerk.

\--

Judy is tired. She wants to go home. She wants to spoil herself with a hot shower. She wants to apply some more of that soothing cream to the new nick in her ear. She wants to curl up in her flannel pajamas and hide from the cold.

Her foot thumps faster than a hummingbird’s heart.

Nick is zonked out right beside her. The lucky fox has fur thick enough that he doesn’t feel the cold yet and a bushy tail big enough to serve as a cozy blanket. And the ability to fall asleep no matter where he is.

Now if only her boyfriend would hurry it up…

“Yes, I am planning on running for one of the delegate positions of the metropolis precinct.”

Both her ears whip up and turn.

“My first duty would be to the safety of my constituents of course. And to all of my constituents, predators and prey. My girlfriend, Miss Judy Hopps, has brought to light a very concerning divide in our society-“

Something clicks in her tired mind. She is a highly visible and well-liked police officer. He is an aspiring politician. Maybe he’s taken her out to fancy restaurants and beautiful concerts and exotic daytrips around Zootopia, but he’s never been willing to come see her at work or after a long day. And this ‘I’ll be right there, Judy, you stay right where you are and I’ll pick you up’ – this only happens when she’s just solved a case and the press is clamoring for attention.

She kicks Nick. “Get up.”

The fox’s ears prick up and he sends her a half-asleep but very surprised look. He knows not to mess with her like this and obediently drags himself out of the car and waits for her as she fights her way to the stage.

“Mr. Hillsan,” she says into the mic. “I’m glad you appreciate my work in the city and agree with you wholeheartedly. That said, I’m breaking up with you.”

It takes her a while to completely wash her hands of that very public relationship; Vincent is not heartbroken but he makes a big deal of blubbering and spins tales of woe. As per Nick’s advice, Judy gives no reaction and merely repeats ‘there was just no spark’ whenever the press come sniffing for a bone and soon enough they leave her alone.

\--

Judy’s third boyfriend was somewhere between a jerk and an idiot. Judy guesses that she kind of knew this in the back of her mind since the end of the first date and doesn’t know why she stayed with him all the way through the fourth. The fourth date is the reason they never go to Pumpkin’s diner anymore. The owner, a tabby cat with bright orange fur whom everyone calls ‘Pumpkin,’ doesn’t mind them, looks happy to see them even, but Nick is always laughing so hard he can’t even order a drink.

\--

It’s a busy night. Date night, and Judy has gotten only half dolled up, choosing to go for the au natural look. She’s wearing her lavender flower dress with the full skirt and the big bow in the back, which just screams ‘country belle.’ But besides that, she is not wearing any make-up or jewelry because she and Nick have the night shift and she wants to be able to just slip from one outfit to the other.

Which is also why she texted Nick to come get her when they’re done so they could go directly from the diner to work. He nods at her date in his typical cordial-yet-maddeningly-detached manner and has already grabbed her coat. “Ready to go, Carrots?”

The rabbit across from them squints suspiciously and cocks his head. “So, like, are you guys dating or something?”

This seems to be a magic question. The diner was full and lively, with every table hosting a family or couple (Judy had waved at the Ottertons when they walked in) and what was once a bustle of chatter in the background has become hushed silence. Judy can feel every eye on her and Nick as they both stare blankly at her date’s ludicrous suggestion.

A million things pop out at Judy in that instant – the genuinely lazy aura the guy seems to wear like cheap cologne, the high-school-type jealousy, the way he always wants her on his arm, his stagnant career, which really does reflect his stagnant personality, his unsupportive and uncaring attitude, that obnoxious way he waves his fries around before eating them, and a whole bunch of other things. God, her rose-tinted lens is strong.

You know what, it’s in this instant that Judy looks at him and thinks that she saw what wasn’t there, ever, and she actually…doesn’t just not like him, she kind of dislikes him as a person.

Because what type of a question IS that?

“Absolutely,” Nick tells him in a very serious voice, and nudges her in the direction of the door with his knee, clearly wanting to get out of there.

Judy looks up at him for a second in surprise and then, just to piss off the jerk who doesn’t seem to understand he just accused her of two-timing him and worse didn’t even have the decency to care if it was true, then she goes up on tiptoe to kiss her best friend.

It is ten types of awkward, and they make sure to let her lazy, jealous idiot of a date know it. Judy has to tilt her head so that his nose doesn’t poke her in the eye and Nick has to do this super weird puckering thing with his lips because foxes have very long muzzles. They make obviously fake kissing noises and keep it strictly at lip-to-lip contact although with the way Judy has to open her mouth you wouldn’t think it.

Once they pull away with the loudest smack they can manage it suddenly occurs to Judy that they did this in front of not only a rabbit she wouldn’t care if she ever saw again, but also in front of an entire diner of animals.

Slick Nick smirks instead of blowing up with laughter at the red face of her former date, who suddenly seems to realize he has severely misstepped, and helps her into her jacket. Instead of pulling her into his usual one-armed hug, he grabs her paw. “Come on, sweetheart, let’s take this to the night shift.”

Now they’re facing the diner of animals. Nick rolls his eyes as if to say, ‘can you believe that idiot?’ Judy isn’t sure if she’s more embarrassed about dumping someone in the most obnoxious manner ever in front of the entire city – because someone must have taken at least a picture – or about dating that idiotic jerk in the first place.

\--

Judy is now much pickier about who she says yes to a date to. Nick pretends to wipe away a proud tear when she tells him that she said no to two other rabbits since the diner, and she would smack him for it if he wasn’t the one who taught her that saying no is okay.

It’s a cultural difference. Among rabbits, it’s perfectly natural to date a stranger. That’s how you meet people. Apparently among foxes, you must be on friendly terms before even considering a date. Dating a stranger? ‘Unthinkable,’ Nick called it. And with the way the first three boyfriends went, Judy is starting to wholeheartedly agree.

\--

Judy didn’t let her fourth boyfriend get the date question out for three whole weeks. By the end of the third week, she had developed such a crush on him that Nick rolled his eyes at the mere mention of his name (or maybe it was the hearts in her eyes whenever he was brought up). But he was dreamy! Cute, didn’t carry around fox deterrent, hard-working, and smart, so she waited patiently for him to stutter through the whole question before she leaned forward and kissed his cheek.

It was a happy seven months of hand-holding, moonlit make-outs, sweet whispers, soft paws, and Nick gagging and ducking out of the room. Judy honestly thought they were going to make it the whole year, and dreamed of the day he’d give her a ring in his elegant, romantic way with a candlelight dinner, a gothic envelope, and a note in his most beautiful calligraphy. And a long kiss.

Would she say yes?

Yes. Yes, she would.

But in the eighth month, she got a burned paw, a dislocated knee, and a broken heart.

\--

Judy stares, dazed, from the ground. Her vision is blurred and dim – is it nighttime? – and her ears ring. She thinks she can feel a faint throbbing in her palm but it is probably her imagination. Everything is her imagination, that Henry is kneeling in front of her, that the hyenas are closing in, that he runs, that one hyena leaps-

Red fur. That is never imaginary. She isn’t sure what her partner is doing – he isn’t actually lashing out with his claws or baring long canines at the bigger dogs in preparation for a two-on-one dogfight, that is her imagination, too. He isn’t savage, after all.

Later in the hospital, she remembers/has to be told that in an all-out war against the ZPD, the two members of the hyena gang had been dispatched to ambush them on the outskirts of the city while the rest attacked the other members in the city. She remembers dragging Henry to the abandoned factory, picnic sandwiches squishing beneath their feet, and hiding. Sending Nick a frantic alert on her phone because now her knee is dislocated and she can’t run and Henry is, is useless.

Just a dumb bunny.

And like any dumb prey animal, he panics and streaks away when the hyenas close in, leaving the _love of his life_ laying there on the ground with a dislocated knee, a concussion, and a badly burned paw from when she tried to escape via the burning hot steam pipe that for some reason will still run when, say, a hyena flicks the switch.

She shivers and her fur puffs out when she thinks about what Nick must have seen when he arrived.

\--

Life goes on. They’re both discharged from the hospital and get back to work and life is horrible.

She feels horrible. Her, her boyfriend-who-was-going-to-be-her-husband, her forever-love abandoned her. Her best friend had to get stitches on his face and half of his ear glued back on and is stuck with a cast around his fractured arm and a ripped tendon, all because she’s a helpless, dumb bunny. Oh, and the palm of her paw has a third-degree burn. That’s a thing. That’s the only thing she can’t feel though so she tends to forget.

Nick, that angel in fox fur, is the reason she doesn’t quit and move back to the farm again. Or die from an infection. Or do various other depressing things. Despite the fact that he only has one arm, a fresh set of scars on his muzzle, and a lot of pain, he still manages to be as Nick as ever.

He’s all sarcastic comebacks and infuriating comments to the concerned do-gooders, and Judy giggles through tears because it’s amusing and so familiar. He lends his one paw so she can properly wrap up her burnt palm with her one paw. He surprises her when she’s sitting on the couch in their – now Nick’s – place and the door opens and he and Ben have all her stuff packed and ready to be moved back in. He’s waiting for her after she says goodbye to Henry, because there’s a lot to be said, and there’s a lot of tears to cry afterwards. He gets their coworkers to throw her a surprise birthday party that he denies planning at work.

With a little nudge and a lot of help from Ben, Judy returns with a surprise party celebrating his 5-year anniversary on the force. For the first time in a while, his smile is because of her, not for her, and Judy feels healed, with a new purpose and new willpower.

She also has a strict new policy on dating.

Whenever someone asks her for a date, she says no.

\--

Trevor stared, open-mouthed, around the city. The metropolis part of Zootopia was amazing. Everything was shiny and vibrant, and metal. Just like his trumpet. It was a dream come true!

“In Zootopia, anyone can be anything,” he whispered to himself, gazing around at the smoothie stand where a family of gophers were serving animals from rats to giraffes. A lion and a hippo came up the escalator together, talking animatedly. Amazing!

He jumped when someone slurped behind him and-

Bright red fur. Pointy, upright ears. Sharp teeth. Black paws. Fox.

The fox slurped from his coffee cup again and Trevor tried not to stare as he waited in line for a ticket to his new home. He failed when another rabbit, a young, pretty one with a nick high up in her right ear, ran right up to the fox and started chattering excitedly, hopping up and down in place. The fox raised his shades and smirked down at her, looking amused. Then the duo strolled off into the crowd.

“Sir? Sir!”

“What-oh, uh, right!” He stepped up to the cashier and blushed hard as he heard the hippo behind him mutter, “dumb bunny.”

When he turned back around, ticket in hand, the fox and the rabbit were long gone. In a city as big as this, he’d probably never see them again. He shook his head, still speechless. A-mazing. Zootopia, where predator and prey live in harmony.

As it turns out, he did see them again. A week and a half later when the music store where he taught got broken into. He was still trying to sweep up the glass when a police cruiser pulled up and out hopped a rabbit and a fox. Once again, he stared.

The rabbit pulled out a carrot pen and notepad and the fox slurped some coffee.

“Hi! Officer Judy Hopps, ZPD.”

**Author's Note:**

> Take it and make what you will of it. This was mostly to work out my obsession with this fabulous movie so I can focus on my actual work, cause it's been a week and I've gotten squat diddly done. I of course have visions of the future romance between Judy and Trevor and the epic bromance between Trevor and Nick (that drives Judy up the wall) but as far as I'm concerned, this series of blurbs is complete.
> 
> ~SheisaCShelz


End file.
